100 Theme Challenge - France and Gaul
by FireBrandComatose
Summary: So, in my mind, France is such a good father because he wanted to be the kind of parent that he didn't have. Warning: There IS going to be abuse in many of these.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any of the characters in it. I do however own the personification of Gaul.**

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**8. Cut**

France jumped in fear when he heard his father shout his name. When his father shouted, it was never good. He looked over as Gaul stormed into the room, looking downright furious about something.

The boy stood there in front of his father, looking up at him with wide, fear filled eyes. He was shaking in fear, and he struggled to keep his voice from giving out on him.

"W-What did I do?" Gaul said nothing, but grabbed the front of France's shirt and swiftly backhanded him across the face, the impact making a loud 'SMACK'.

France yelped and covered the side of his face with his hands as his father let go of his shirt, dropping him to the floor. Tears welling up in his eyes, he let out a quiet whimper and looked up at Gaul.

"F-Father, w-what did I do?"

"You know what you did!" Gaul glared down at his son, and France sniffled, looking down at the floor.

"I didn't- didn't do anything."

As Gaul stormed back out of the room, muttering obscenities under his breath, France wiped his face with his sleeve, careful to not touch his now swelling cheek. He also began to taste something metallic, and he gingerly touched his lower lip. It had been split open from the force of the hit.

More tears rolled down his cheeks to replace the ones he wiped away, and he let out another quiet whimper as he stood up. Deciding not to go outside, so as to not risk running into his father again, France instead ran straight to his room.

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**30. Fake**

Whenever France had to go anywhere with Gaul, he would act like his normal happy self. He'd smile and greet the people he knew, and have brief conversations with them. To the others, nothing seemed wrong, he seemed just as normal as ever. But little did they know that every smile he gave them was fake, every laugh forced, the happiness he clearly expressed, fake. All of it was fake. It all disappeared the moment he and his father were out of the sight of others.

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**36. Midnight**

He hadn't been able to sleep at all. Not one bit. France just couldn't fall asleep, no matter how hard he tried. Instead, he had sat there on his bed, wide awake, with the fear he felt making him sick to his stomach. When he glanced out the window, he saw that the moon was high in the night sky, and he knew it had to have been somewhere close to midnight by then. But his fear just wouldn't let him sleep. To try and distract himself, he moved to sit by his windowsill and tried to count the stars. He kept counting, sleep still refusing to take over, and before he realized the sky slowly began to turn pink as the sun began to rise.

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**40. Fear**

For most of his childhood, France feared his father. And not just because he was an intimidating man, either. He was also a man that was quick to anger, and more often than not resorted to violence. France had every reason to fear his father. Sometimes, that fear would keep him up at night, and he wouldn't sleep. He was that scared. That scared of his own father.

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**56. Hurt**

His face hurt. The hand-shaped bruise hurt, specifically. It always hurt when his father hit him, but he started to feel as if it was starting to hurt less and less. Not physically, of course, but emotionally. As time went on, he began to come to terms with his father's violent nature. It was just how he was. It didn't reduce the number of beatings, however, but he found that he no longer cried.

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**73. Struck**

France was never truly scared of his father until the first time he hit him. Before that, he was more nervous than scared, and wasn't as quick to do as he was told. But that changed completely the moment Gaul had decided to hit him across the face, and for seemingly no good reason.

He had hoped that it wouldn't happen again, but unfortunately his hopes were in vain. It was only the beginning.

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**86. 86**

Eighty six times. That's how many times his father had hit him over the course of three months. Every time because of something that wasn't his fault, but simply because his father had been angry about something. He couldn't help but wonder how many more times he would get hit before it all would stop. Before his father finally came to his senses and realized what he was doing.

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**91. Scar**

If one bothered to look carefully at his jawline, they'd see a thin scar running from the corner of his jaw to his chin, although it would be somewhat faded. His stubble would also make it difficult to see, and the scar would be completely missed unless someone specifically looked for it, or he told them about it.

The scar was a 'gift' from his father, back when he had decided to try yelling back. It was something he didn't do again for a long time. Not until Gaul tried dragging his daughter into the situation.

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**99. Space**

_'Keep running. Put as much space between him and you as possible.'_

That's what he kept telling himself as he ran through the woods, the fields, across the streams and over rocks.

_'Keep running. Increase the distance, before he comes looking for you.'_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any of the characters in it. I do however own the personification of Gaul.**

**Also, quick Author's Note, anything spoken in a foreign language will be shown in English after it in italics and parenthesis.**

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**2. Love**

All he wanted was for his father to love him. To be proud of him for once. To not see him as a complete failure. That's all he wanted. But it seemed that his father wasn't capable of love, or if he was he simply refused to do so.

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**7. Fairy**

France sat against the base of a large tree, waiting for his father to show up and drag him back home, like he always did when France ran away. He never had to wait too long, only about a few hours or so. Gaul was an expert tracker, so he was always able to find him, no matter where he went. It was for this reason that France never tried to run away to a more permanent location, because he knew that his father would come find him anyway. As he sat there, he heard someone run up behind the tree, but it didn't sound like his father at all.

"Get back here Tinker Bell! Stop being so fussy, I said I was sorry!" France blinked in surprise and turned to look at the strange boy seemingly trying to grab at something farther up the tree. "Come down from there! You know I can't reach you from down here!"

"Uh, excuse me?" The boy seemed to freeze for a moment and looked at him in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get my fairy friend, but she's being rude and sitting up where I can't reach her!" The boy looked back up into the tree near one of the lowest branches. France looked as well, but saw nothing.

"... Fairy friend, huh?" France couldn't help but snicker a bit, but quickly silenced himself and cleared his throat. "So, which branch is she on?"

"Right there, that one!" The boy pointed at a very weak looking branch, then looked over at France. "Say, you look like you're tall enough to reach that branch, could you get her down for me?"

"Huh?"

"I can't reach her, but you could. Please?"

"Uh..." France sighed and smiled a little. "Alright, I'll..see what I can do."

France reached up towards the branch and held out his hand, unsure of what exactly to do, seeing as there was nothing on the branch.

"Uh, here miss fairy. Your friend wants you to come down now." For a split second, France thought he saw the branch move, as if a small weight had been lifted off of it, and he heard the boy speak behind him.

"Oh so you listen to a complete stranger but not to me? I see how it is!" France lowered his hand and turned to look at the boy. "Well I don't care, it was still rude of you! Now let's go home."

"... Uh..." France smiled nervously as he watched the boy talk to air. He was certain he was insane.

"Oh," The boy looked at him. "Thank you for getting Tinker Bell for me."

"It was nothing, rea-"

"Francis!"

France yelped and flinched, turning around quickly to see his father walking over. He looked angry, as usual, and as he approached he looked down at the boy with a look of disgust. The boy simply looked over at France.

"Francis? What kind of a name is Francis?"

"It's-"

"That is what I decided to name him. Now get out of my land, boy." The boy looked surprised.

"YOUR land?" Gaul narrowed his eyes.

"Yes. My land. If I see you here again, you will wish you had listened." Gaul grabbed France's arm and started to walk back the way he came, practically dragging France behind him.

"... Bye Francis!"

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**9. Stitch**

France winced slightly at the needle going through his cheek, but kept his hands at his sides and stayed silent. His father had struck him while wearing his bracers, creating a gash in his cheek. He had run off into the woods after that, but ended up running into England. When England had seen the wound on his face, he had insisted on bringing him to Britannia so she could help.

"Francis, why do you let your father do this to you?"

"It's not like I could do anything to keep him from doing it anyway... He's bigger than me, stronger than me, and he always seems to find me no matter where I go..." Britannia stayed silent for a few moments, completing stitch after stitch.

"... You know, the English Channel isn't that wide." France looked up at her.

"Huh?"

"You're more than welcome to come live with me and my sons."

France stayed silent, staring up at her with wide eyes. He seemed like he was about to say something, but decided not to and looked down. As Britannia set the final stitch and cut the string, France shook his head.

"Thank you for worrying about me, but I can't... I'm sorry..." Britannia frowned and made him look at her.

"No, don't ever apologize for what you're going through. Okay?"

"..." France nodded and looked down again. "Okay."

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**11. Dragon**

"Sut meiddio chi! Beth ydych chi'n meddwl eich bod yn ei wneud?! Sut allech chi daro eich mab hun?!" _( "How dare you! What do you think you're doing?! How could you hit your own son?!" )_

"Uh oh..." England seemed to shrink as he watched his mother storm over towards Gaul. "He made Mumsy go into Dragon Mode..."

"Dragon Mode?" France looked over at England, both worried and confused.

"It's when she gets really really angry..." England looked at him. "What did your dad do?"

"I- I don't know."

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**59. Censored**

"... Father, why are we going to see Rome?"

"Because I have important things to talk with him about." Gaul glanced down at his son. "Now quiet." France looked down.

"Yes father..."

France had never been to the city of Rome before, but he had seen Rome himself a few times. Rome and his father didn't get along at all, and every time they talked it seemed to end in yelling. The only thing France knew about where they were going was that his father had agreed to meet with Rome just outside of his city.

As they neared the city, France could easily make out the form of Rome. However, there were two much smaller people with him, children from the looks of it. France blinked in confusion. The closer they got, the more he realized that the two small children looked very much like Rome, and were obviously twins. They must have been Rome's grandchildren that France had heard about.

Gaul stopped a few feet away from Rome, causing him to look up from the children. The two ancients stared at each other for a few brief moments, then Rome looked back down at the children and knelt down to their level.

"Why don't you two head back into the city now? Grandpa has some things to take care of." The lighter haired child nodded happily and smiled.

"Okay grandpa!" The darker haired child however shook his head and stamped his foot.

"No! I don't want to go! You'll be stuck out here by yourself with that big creepy bastard!" He pointed at Gaul, who in turn narrowed his eyes at the small boy.

Rome frowned and lightly bopped the boy on the mouth in punishment, telling him not to say such words. France tilted his head slightly in curiosity.

'Rome hits his grandchildren too? … He doesn't hit them anywhere near as hard as father hits me.'

The darker haired boy kept ranting, and Rome kept bopping him on the mouth every time a bad word came out of his mouth. Eventually, the boy quieted down and allowed his sibling to take him back towards the city.

'... What strange children.'

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**83. Chaos**

"Nid ydych yn deilwng o fod yn rhiant! Os ydych yn trin eich mab fel hyn, nad ydych yn haeddu iddo!"_ ( "You aren't worthy of being a parent! If you treat your son like this, you don't deserve him!" )_

"Get out of my face, wench! You have no power here!"

"Unrhyw bŵer? Unrhyw bŵer?! Byddaf yn dangos i chi pŵer i chi mochyn!"_ ( "No power? No power?! I'll show you power you pig!" )_

The area fell silent as Gaul raised his hand and struck Britannia across the face. The sound of the impact made France flinch, and made England clench his hands into fists.

"How dare you hit my Mumsy! No one is allowed to hit my Mumsy you big brute!" Gaul turned his glare to the small nation.

"You better learn to keep your mouth shut, boy."

"And you need to learn to not hit people! You're just a big bully!" France tugged on England's sleeve and shook his head quickly, telling him to be quiet, but England kept yelling. "You go around hitting whoever you want but YOU should be the one getting hit!"

"Disrespectful whelp!" Gaul took a step towards England, but Britannia quickly moved to stand in front of him.

"Peidiwch â MEIDDIO chi osod llaw ar fy mab!" _( "Don't you DARE lay a hand on my son!" )_

"Get. Out. Of. My. WAY!"

Britannia raised her hand and there was a brief gleam as she swung her hand down. Gaul let out a pained groan and his hand flew to cover the left side of his face. The two smaller nations both went deathly silent as they watched blood begin to seep out from between Gaul's fingers. In Britannia's hand was a small dagger, which must have been concealed in one of her sleeves.

"Peidiwch â chi ERIOED bygwth fy mab unwaith eto!"_ ( "Don't you EVER threaten my son again!" )_

Gaul glared at Britannia and took his hand away from his face, revealing the long gash she had left. It stretched all the way from just above his eyebrow to just above his beard. Gaul and Britannia stood there, both glaring at each other with equal intensity, until Gaul turned his gaze to France. The boy in turn winced and looked down, avoiding eye contact.

"Francis, get over here. We are going home." After a brief silence, Gaul narrowed his eyes. "Now!"

France flinched and began to walk over to his father, looking down at the ground and staying silent. When he reached his father, Gaul grabbed his arm tightly and started to walk away, France just barely able to keep up with his pace.


End file.
